Max Verstappen avoids race ban as FIA rules no fault in Spanish GP incident with Charles Leclerc during pit straight contact.
This is a highly significant outcome for the Dutch driver, who was one penalty point away from a race suspension after being given three points on his license for what the FIA deemed a deliberate collision with George Russell (read more here).
However, the stewards noted that the contact between the two drivers on the pit straight could have led to a “serious accident.”
The incident occurred following the Safety Car restart. Verstappen, running in third at the time, had to correct a slide coming out of the final corner as the race resumed. He was on hard tyres, while Leclerc was on softs, which warm up more quickly.
Leclerc drew alongside Verstappen on the right as they accelerated down the straight. As he edged ahead of the Red Bull, Leclerc moved closer to Verstappen, and the two drivers made brief contact.
After speaking with both drivers, the stewards concluded that each bore partial responsibility.
“Car 16 (Leclerc) overtook Car 1 (Verstappen) at the beginning of the straight. Both cars moved slightly towards each other in the middle of the track and minor contact occurred as a result.”
“Both drivers acknowledged it was an avoidable collision and that it could have led to a major accident, but neither was found to be predominantly at fault.”
Leclerc explained that the contact happened because Verstappen was too reluctant to give space.
“I don’t think there was anything unusual. Max made a mistake coming out of the last corner, I pulled alongside. He tried to put me on the dirty side of the track, just as I would have done, which is fair. And then, once I had the speed advantage, I tried to benefit a bit from the slipstream.”
“At the first move, I was ready to shift slightly. At the second, he wasn’t. That’s the whole difference between contact or not, but in the end, it’s racing. I don’t think it’s a big issue.”
- Discover More>Russell: Verstappen drove into me but ended up punishing himself
- Following us on>Facebook et Twitter